A novel electro-cleanable PAN-ZnO nanofiber membrane with superior water flux and electrocatalytic properties for organic pollutant degradation

Abstract Nanofiber membranes (NFMs) prepared with electrostatic spinning have attracted more and more attention in wastewater treatment owing to its unique advantages of high porosity and large specific surface area. However, the low removal rate of small molecular weight dyes and membrane fouling are the main obstacles for its large-scale application. Therefore, new polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-ZnO NFM was prepared simply and efficiently combined with electrostatic spinning technology and magnetron sputtering. Under the action of electrocatalysis, PAN-ZnO NFM exhibited not only high removal rate (>95%) for Congo red (CR), rhodamine B (RhB), sunset yellow (YS), methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB), but also excellent water flux (1016 L m−2 h−1 Bar−1). Moreover, the electrocatalytic stability investigation of PAN-ZnO NFM showed that the membrane still maintained an excellent dye removal rate (>90%) after 10 h of continuous electrocatalytic filtration. Apart from, PAN-ZnO NFM also displayed excellent mechanical properties (252 MPa of Young's modulus) and antifouling ability. The permeate flux recovery rate of more than 90% after electrocatalytic cleaning for 5 min. Due to its excellent properties in dye removal rate, water flux, electrocatalytic stability, and antifouling, PAN-ZnO NFM exhibited an excellent application prospect in textile wastewater treatment.